Basic Editing with Windows Movie Maker Part 4

15. Enter the text that you want to use to identify the speaker in your clip into one of the two boxes. You’ll see the text in the preview on the right side, relative to where it will appear on your subject. This is not an exact science, and you will definitely want to little play button right above the timeline to preview before you click on the “Done” button.

16. This is what you should see in Windows Movie Maker after you’ve added the identifying text to your clip. You may also note that I have gone ahead and added credits to the video. The steps involved in adding credits are the same as steps 9, 10, and 11 above, but instead of clicking on “Add title at the beginning of the movie” you’ll want to click on “Add credits at the end of the movie.”

17. When you’re happy with the way your video is looking, the next step is saving it as a finished product. Fortunately, Windows Movie Maker makes this process very simple. Click on “Save to my computer” under the Finish Movie heading.

18. On this next screen, enter a filename that describes your video and choose where you will save it. The file extension of .wmv will automatically be added to your filename, and so you do not need to type it in this space. Lastly, click “Next.”

19. The default option here is OK, but in my opinion it does not compress the video enough to make for easy uploading to video sharing websites. I recommend clicking on “Show more choices…” but if you would like to go with the selected option, skip ahead to step 21.

20. Click on the “Other Settings” button, and from the drop-down menu select the option “High quality video (small).” This will output a video with a resolution of 320×240, which is the size recommended by most video sharing services (including YouTube). The filesize will also be significantly smaller than some of the other options, but the quality will be adequate for web sharing. Click “Next” to begin processing the video.

21. Now the video is being saved to your computer. This shouldn’t take more than a minute or two, usually a lot less.

22. Now your video is done processing. If you’re ready to upload it, move on ahead to the next section: Uploading and Sharing